P.J. O’Rourke: John Hughes Made Conservatism Funny
On 30th anniversary of “The Breakfast Club”, P.J. O’Rourke remembers his friend John Hughes for his fine conservative values and humor. The former National Lampoon managing editor wrote in an article for the Daily Beast, about working with Hughes on the humor magazine. “John wrote so fast and so well that it was hard for a monthly magazine to keep up with him.”
Writing about how John Hughes put his conservatism into his films, O’Rourke wrote, Like all of John’s movies, The Breakfast Club is conservative. Note that the first thing the disgruntled kids in detention do is not organize a protest, not express “class (of 1985) solidarity,” not chant “Students of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your locker combinations” and not claim it takes a Shermer to raise them. They present themselves, like good conservatives do, as individuals and place the highest value, like this conservative does, on goofing off. Otherwise known as individual liberty.”
O’Rourke says John Hughes, demonstrated how conservative the “Breakfast Club” characters were in their actions and that’s what made it funny. “The kids don’t try to abolish authority and institutions. They elude and modify them with wit. This is a comedy.”
On his friend he wrote, “John had the kind of creativity you don’t see much of outside Genesis chapters 1 and 2.”
